(Shenzhen Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-09 09:23

Mainland brokerages, enjoying their most profitable year in a decade amid the country's stock rally, must contribute part of their annual revenue toward a fund to protect investors, the securities watchdog said yesterday in a statement.

Brokers must pay between 0.5 percent and up to 5 percent of their revenue to the fund, depending on a grading scale set by the regulator, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said. The fund will be collected by Aug. 30 this year.

Shang Fulin, chairman of the CSRC, said the CSRC wants to protect investors, who operate 107.1 million accounts at the end of June, in a market where the key index has swung between a daily gain of 5.2 percent and a one-day slump of 7.7 percent.

The move may add to the operating costs of brokerages, forcing smaller firms to merge in the world’s best-performing stock market this year.

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"Brokerages profits will be hammered, especially the weaker ones, because paying 5 percent of their revenue is a big cost,"said Yi Yangfang, who helps manage about US$5 billion at GF Fund Management Co. in Guangzhou. "The government will try to encourage a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the brokerage industry."

The fund was set up to shield investors in the event that a brokerage goes bankrupt or faces liquidation because of trading losses.

The percentage of revenue paid to the protection fund will be based on the brokerage’s ratings givens by the regulator, according to the statement. The securities watchdog didn’t disclose how it rated the brokerage companies or the rating results.